President Obama will propose on Monday giving the federal government new power to block excessive rate increases by health insurance companies, as he rolls out comprehensive legislation to revamp the nation’s health care system, White House officials said Sunday.President Obama and the Democratic Congress continue to display, what can most charitably be described as a complete ignorance of free markets and capitalism, and most cynically as a profound contempt for American business and the free enterprise system that made this country great.
With the Senate Set to Vote on Jobs Bill, Governors Say They Still Need Assistance (February 22, 2010) The president’s legislation aims to bridge differences between the bills adopted by the House and Senate late last year, and to frame his debate with Republicans over health policy at a televised “summit” meeting on Thursday.
By focusing on the effort to tighten regulation of insurance costs, a new element not included in either the House or Senate bills, Mr. Obama is seizing on outrage over recent premium increases of up to 39 percent announced by Anthem Blue Cross of California and moving to portray the Democrats’ health overhaul as a way to protect Americans from profiteering insurers.
Congressional Republicans have long denounced the Democrats’ legislation as a “government takeover” of health care. And while they will likely resist any expansion of federal authority over existing state regulators, they will face a tough balancing act at the meeting with the president to avoid appearing as if they are willing to allow steep premium hikes like those by Anthem.
Who, in his right mind, would start, or for that matter, continue running a health insurance business in an environment where unelected government bureaucrats have the power to dictate what products and services the business must offer, where and when it will be able to sell those products and services, and, oh yeah, how much it will be allowed to charge for them?
No one. And that is the ugly truth behind any plan originating from the "social justice", big government, redistribution of wealth, nanny-state Democrats. They want the nation's insurers to fail, so that the federal government can become the single national payer for health care for all.
The White House will not get support for this "new" plan from any Republicans, and will certainly try to pass it through the budget reconciliation process, requiring only 50 votes in the Senate (VP Joe Biden, waiting in the wings to break a tie). I believe the American people will see through this thinly-veiled attempt to portray the Republicans as obstructionists, devoid of real ideas for health care reform, while hijacking the legislative process in a scorched earth campaign.
I hope and pray a few Democrats who have not had their brains sucked out by their own liberal lobotomizing leadership, can withstand the strong-arm tactics of the White House, and vote no for the people they are elected to represent who do not want this health care bill.
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